PLAN FOR RECYCLING PLANT ANGERS LOCAL RESIDENTS

More than 100 homeowners sign petition opposing project on 35 acres of county land

More than 100 north Escondido residents have signed petitions opposing plans to build an industrial recycling plant on 35 acres of vacant county land next to their mostly rural and upscale neighborhoods.

“All the homes out here are on 1- or 2-acre lots, and there are a lot of groves,” Jesmond Dene Heights resident Dave Dewitt said. “No one’s against recycling or the environment, but there’s no way anything like that should be out here. It just doesn’t make sense.”

The residents are also frustrated that county officials changed the zoning of the site — a former quarry that provided materials to construct I-15 in the late 1970s — from rural to industrial in summer 2011.

Dewitt, a lifelong Escondido resident, said county officials made the zoning change quietly, leaving residents in the dark.

“The amazing thing about this is how it all of a sudden came out of the blue,” Dewitt said. “There have been a range of permits and changes going on for a couple years that none of us knew about.”

The developer proposing the plant, longtime North County businessman Arie de Jong, said Thursday that the site was ideal because it has great freeway access and the area’s terrain would make the plant less conspicuous.

“You can’t even see it from the road,” he said. “And the neighbors aren’t that close by, because I own 142 acres there.”

DeJong also said he planned to screen the plant visually and be sensitive to residents in how the plant would be run. “We’re not out here to run a shoddy operation,” he said.

The residents have lobbied the County Board of Supervisors, which is scheduled to approve or reject the proposed plant sometime this fall, and the Escondido City Council.

Some of the frustrated residents live on county land in subdivisions such as Montreaux and Jesmond Dene Heights.

But others live within the city, in neighborhoods such as Escondido Hills. In addition, an upscale 39-home subdivision called High Point has been approved by the city for vacant land near the site.

City Council members debated last week whether to urge the county to reject the proposal.

Councilman Mike Morasco said the plant could jeopardize the success of High Point, calling that subdivision the kind of high-end project that city officials have sought for years. “The homes will be sitting literally right over this,” he said.

Councilwoman Olga Diaz said the city should get involved. “Even though it’s county property, that is the gateway to Escondido, and I think it’s something we should be highly concerned about,” she said. “It’s not in character with that area.”

But Mayor Sam Abed said the city would only monitor the project’s progress, not take an official stance.

Barbara Redlitz, the city’s planning chief, said Escondido officials and the county’s advisory Twin Oaks Planning Group opposed the zoning change two years ago. She said the site seemed too isolated for industrial use and too close to homes. She said the city also had concerns about air pollution.